Summary:
In this research paper, Bagdouri compares the Twitter usage data of journalists, news organizations, and news consumers. These users are also categorized based on their region as an European English-speaking country or an Arabic speaking country as well as their media type of either print, radio, or television. They found significant differences in audience engagement, tweet style, distinguishability from news-consumers, similarities and dissimilarities between different media types, and insignificant differences between journalists who share a language but do not share a country [1]. By analyzing and reflecting on this data, the paper intended to answer some of their own research questions and determine how the use of Twitter is changing the role of journalists and news organizations in society.
Reflection:
Social media has drastically altered how consumers acquire information in our society. According to the Pew Research Center, about 68% of Americans get news from social media [2]. Social media has given a voice to those who may not have had one through traditional news sources and has allowed them to tell their own stories. It’s also raised awareness of a variety of movements, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo.
Social media has also changed how journalists and news organizations share information. With an increasing presence on social media platforms, journalists and news organizations have to keep up with social media’s pace. Among journalists and news organizations, Bagdouri compares the number of shared links per tweets, the number of lists containing these accounts, average number of tweets per day, average number of hashtags per tweet, and the frequency of engaging with the audience through retweeting, replying, and favoriting. The finding was that organizations are more likely to broadcast their tweet and that journalists target their audience and engage with them more. This analysis prompts the following questions:
- As the topic of ‘fake news’ becomes more prevalent, is it possible to use similar data to determine the credibility of a news source?
- What is the overlap for journalists who work for news organizations?
Some potential research to answer these questions could compare the tweets and Twitter usage of credible versus non-credible or less-credible news sources and the interactions between them and their audience. It could also explore the positive or negative reactions to their tweets.
Based on user engagement between journalists and their audience, Bagdouri also suggested that journalists are most likely gaining information from their audience.
- What machine learning and natural language processing techniques can be used to verify the credibility of this audience and to help journalists target ‘credible’ Twitter users for future information?
Bagdouri also finds significant differences in Twitter usage between European English-speaking journalists and Arab journalists showing that Arab journalists are more likely to broadcast information rather than target their audience. The research also finds that Arab journalists are typically more distinguishable from their audience.
- What cultural and/or political differences may contribute to this distinction?
- Do Arab journalists from different countries show any dissimilar patterns?
The research done in this paper is quite thorough for the sample size. It would be interesting to see the same study done with varying cultures such as American news, Canadian news, and news from different countries in Africa. The article prompts interesting questions about the evolving role of news organizations and journalists in our society.
[1] Bagdouri, M. 2016. Journalists and twitter: A multidimensional quantitative description of usage patterns. In Proceedings of the 10th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM ’16. To appear.
[2] http://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/
